Hi Jean

The purpose of the check rec file is to support the bank reconciliation. It is not designed to be used as a way to quickly look up an issued check, although it can serve that purpose. There are other ways, for example the Check Number Audit List.

There is no reason to keep any checks in the check rec file other than outstanding checks and recently issued ones. Cleared checks and other non-outstanding checks just clutter up the file and make it harder to use the file for its intended purpose.

Specifically, what I like to do each month after clearing the checks off the bank statement is to print a list of the checks I just cleared and make sure the total agrees with the bank statement's list of cleared checks. You can't do that if you have prior months' cleared checks still sitting there.

If you decide to purge the old non-outstanding checks, the way to do it is to "print" the check reconciliation report, selecting all statuses, and then say yes when asked to clear non-outstanding checks. I put print in quotes because I wouldn't suggest printing to paper; I would suggest printing to PDF because the report may be very long.

Steve